Nomar Garciaparra to L.A., apparently. I don't have good feelings about this. If Nomar goes to a team like Cleveland and gets hurt or is no good, then, well, that's a "small market team taking a chance." With the Dodgers, Garciaparra has the chance to be part of a disturbing injury perfecta with the likes of Drew, Gagne, Penny, and Perez. No one really noticed or cared when Juan Gonzalez ended up contributing nothing for the Indians last year, yet somehow people seriously suggested that an injury to the profoundly ineffective Jose Valentin is what started the Dodgers on their death spiral in 2005. I guess what I'm driving at is that if the general character of your team is young, healthy, and vigorous, you're more likely to weather these sorts of things. Mixing Nomar with the bone china-armed Cubs pitching staff was a recipe for disaster. With Drew, Nomar, and a 38-year-old Jeff Kent, the Dodgers could become the first team ever to lose their three, four, and five hitters for the season on back-to-back-to-back check swings.

Unrelated addendum: In response to Take Two Interactive buying the exclusive rights to make major league baseball-licensed videogames (itself a response to Electronic Arts' snagging of the NFL rights), EA is developing a college baseball title. That's kind of a cool idea. I end up buying at least two XBox baseball games every year because there's always one that's fun multiplayer and one that has a rigorous franchise mode, but never one with both. At the right price, I would buy a college baseball game. This could end up, quite unintentionally, being a huge boon for the NCAA. I've become a huge international soccer fan due mostly to my enthusiasm for EA's FIFA and Konami's Winning Eleven.